Nokia to manufacture BSC in India

By agencies   |   Monday, 30 May 2005, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Expanding its manufacturing portfolio in India, mobile handset major Nokia will also make base station controllers (BSC) at its Chennai facility, being set up with an investment of $150 million. The company has already announced plans to manufacture mobile phones in India last month. "Nokia will add additional lines at the Chennai plant to make base station controllers," company sources said. The Chennai unit is tenth mobile device production facility globally for Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones. "India is a booming telecom market and offers immense scope for mobile networks. Nokia, therefore, decided to take advantage of expanding telecom infrastructure, which will fuel the demand for base station controllers," they said. A base station controller controls multiple base transceiver stations. In 2.5G and 3G (third generation) networks, the BSC separates voice and data traffic. Among global giants, Ericsson is already manufacturing radio base stations (RBS), another crucial component of mobile networks, from its plant near Jaipur to cater to the domestic market. Nokia began the construction work for the Chennai plant in April and production is expected to commence in the first half of 2006. Nokia foresees ramping up the factory gradually and the work force reaching approximately 2,000 employees when production is full scale.

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